Around 19,000 years ago, a prehistoric woman was buried inside El Mirón Cave, a large rock shelter in northern Spain. Her remains, discovered in 2010 by archaeologists Lawrence Straus of the University of New Mexico and David Cuenca Solana, were covered in red ochre, an iron-rich pigment that earned her the nickname Red Lady of El Mirón. This spectacular find has provided a wealth of information about Ice Age humans, and new advances in DNA analysis continue to yield fresh insights about the populations that lived in the region before and after her time.
Genetic studies of ancient humans rely on extracting DNA from bones or teeth. But an outstanding paper published in Nature Communications shows that DNA preserved in the soil, known as sedimentary ancient DNA, or 'sedaDNA', can produce crucial insights. The study, involving Pere Gelabert and Victoria Oberreiter in Professor Ron Pinhasi's laboratory at the University of Vienna, was conducted in collaboration with Straus and Manuel González Morales from the University of Cantabria. They have co-directed the El Mirón excavations for over 25 years.
According to sedaDNA analysis, humans and animals inhabited the cave at different times, corresponding to the deep archaeological layers. The research identified genetic traces of species not previously recorded in excavated faunal remains, such as hyena, leopard, and Asiatic dhole, a wild dog now only found in parts of Asia. This method is highly appealing as it offers the potential to unravel past ecosystems without requiring well-preserved skeletal remains.
One of the most significant findings of this research is the discovery of the genetic ancestry of humans in the sediments. Analysis revealed that the artisans who made Solutrean artifacts in El Mirón Cave during the Last Glacial Maximum (c. 25,000-21,000 years ago) belonged to the 'Fournol' genetic lineage. This lineage has previously been identified in remains found in France and Spain, suggesting that these Ice Age hunter-gatherers moved south when climatic conditions were extreme. Later, they merged with the genetic legacy of the Red Lady, along with the 'Villabruna' ancestry, which migrated to the region from the Balkans through northern Italy during the Magdalenian.
El Mirón Cave has long been recognized as a key site for studying human activity during the Upper Paleolithic. The new sedaDNA findings reinforce its importance by providing an uninterrupted genetic record spanning over 46,000 years, encompassing the transition from Neanderthal populations in the Mousterian period to modern humans in the Magdalenian.
In addition to human DNA, this research retrieved mitochondrial genomes from other Ice Age animals, including woolly mammoths, rhinoceros, and reindeer. The work contributes to the reconstruction of the prehistoric European environment and provides a clearer picture of how both wildlife and humans responded to past climate change.
With the success of sedaDNA analysis at El Mirón, researchers are now looking towards the next frontier, extracting nuclear DNA from sediments.